As I have said before, the Prestone comes out occasionally not over something that Tiger Beat On The Potomac does by itself but, rather, over something that merely appears in that publication. Yesterday, you may recall, we were treated to some poll numbers from Arkansas indicating that Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor had a substantial lead over Congressman Tom Cotton, who'd been reckoned to be a powerful opponent, but whose campaign apparently is being run by marmosets. Hurrah, said many Democratic politicians. Alas, every garden party needs a skunk, and every punchbowl needs a pisser.

"It seems paying senators like you $12 an hour is a better return on their investment than paying their own workers' wages," Nader wrote. "Your failure to raise the minimum wage ensures that Wal-Mart executives profit from the federal assistance such as food stamps and housing aid that subsidizes Wal-Mart's miserly wages."

Pryor's disinclination to commit political suicide has brought out the chief of the Purity Police.

"This idea that they don't lose votes but they gain money if they come out against public opinion on minimum wage is a bizarre aspect of the Democratic Party," Nader said in an interview. "This is the heart of Wal-Mart worker land. The Wal-Mart workers may toe the line inside the store, but in the privacy of the precinct, they are going to ask who stands on our side?" "That's the cancer that eats at this party and decays it," Nader said. "He's so cautious, looking over his shoulder afraid of every shadow."

First of all, Pryor missed one vote, and that was because he was home surveying storm damage from a series of tornadoes that had torn up Arkansas. Was this a serendipitous coincidence? Probably, but you'd have to be a moral goon, or Ralph Nader, to cite Pryor for cowardice because he'd gone back home to help storm victims recover. Secondly, and this is a completely futile exercise because it's a question that Nader has refused to answer since he explained to the nation how Both Sides Are The Same back in 2000, does Nader seriously think Pryor would stand in the way of a minimum wage hike in a cloture-proof Democratic majority? Or, conversely, that the minimum wage would be no better off with Senator Tom Cotton taking orders from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell?

Elsewhere, though, TBOTP trafficks in a lot of its signature crapola. It is, for example, Waiting For Jebbie Day among the various Mouseketeers. There's a long piece about the battle over the pile of cinders that remain of The Smart One's soul.This describes a situation not unlike those that afflicted noble families in the plays of Euripides, had the ancient Greeks worn pastel polo shirts, and pants with little green whales on them.

Jeb, who'd long had plans for a political career, had already launched his gubernatorial candidacy when his brother suddenly dove into the Texas race. The dual campaigns transformed the two into a "People magazine story," Jeb complained publicly, although he added he had "no control" over his older brother, who on at least one occasion tailored his own stump lines to mirror Jeb's. The night Jeb lost and George W. won, the 41st president told reporters, "The joy is in Texas, but our hearts are in Florida." The loss, Jeb told a reporter later, "really hurt my parents and it kind of created an uncomfortable situation when I've seen George W."

Thus doth fall the House Of Atreus, right off the cigarette boat and into Boothbay Harbor.

There's another piece about how Jebbie is being urged to run by the extremely influential Speaker Of The House, who's taking time out for his search for that elusive mason jar to survey the current crop of prospective GOP candidates, and who, having done so, now can be found with a paper bag over his head, and a beat-sweetener about how Jebbie gave a speech in New York that did not have people hurling canapes at his head.

Both Bush and Ryan emphasized messages before the black-tie crowd at Cipriani in Midtown of elevating people out of poverty. But even though Ryan is still believed to be considering running for president, he got relatively little attention compared with Bush.

I sprained my foot halfway through that first sentence, but I'm fairly sure the scribe did not mean there is a neighborhood in Manhattan called "Midtown Of Elevating People Out Of Poverty," but it seems that the old Compassionate Conservatism con -- which Jebbie invented, only to have it 'jacked by his ne'er-do-well brother -- may be coming out for another lap around the country.

(Jebbie is a better front man for it than the zombie-eyed granny starver, which is why he got most of the attention, I'm thinking. Nevertheless, we did get some vintage wet-eyed help-the-po' folks rhetoric from the former Social Security welfare queen. Ryan focused on a forward-looking message, saying the best way to "fight poverty" and to "turn from a vicious cycle of despair and learned hopelessness to a virtuous cycle of hope and flourishing is by embracing the attributes of friendship, accountability and love." Yes, Ms. Parker, it is to fwow up.)

Some folks really want a boomlet to commence, I'm thinking. Bartender, a double Prestone, and see what the pundits in the back room will have.